A SWINDON woman says she is lucky not to have been seriously hurt after allegedly swallowing an unknown sharp object that was unexpectedly in her Pot Noodle. 

Kathy Penticost, from Highworth, was eating a King Original Curry Pot Noodle she had purchased from the nearby Brewery Street Co-op when she felt something sharp in her mouth and began to choke.

It happened when she drank the sauce at the bottom, and she was thankfully able to make her way to a sink where she coughed up what was in her mouth and discovered it appeared to be a small stick with sharp thorns. 

The 56-year-old wrote to the company about her experience and the pain the rogue object caused her, and the food firm responded by apologising and offering her a £20 cheque to be spent on other brands from Unilever, the company that owns Pot Noodle. 

But the shocked Swindon woman said she was surprised by their response as she was expecting them to at least recall the product to check no further potentially dangerous objects had got past the manufacturing process.

Kathy said: "I decided to drink the end part as I find it easier. I was watching telly at the same time and I wasn't paying a great deal of attention, then as I took a mouthful I felt something not right inside my mouth and something sharp and I started to choke."

Home alone and with mobility issues, Kathy was concerned that she might not be able to seek help in time so she went to the nearest sink to try and cough it up. 

"Then it came out, and I was so shocked to discover what looked like a rose stem and the sharp thorns."

Kathy packaged up the rest of the offending pot and documented everything with photographs, including one the Adver has seen showing several painful-looking indentations inside her mouth, which she sent to Pot Noodle.

"Thankfully, as I went to swallow the pot noodle, the object went to go down horizontally and not vertically. Otherwise, I hate to think about the damage it could have caused."

A Unilever spokesperson said: "We were sorry to hear about Kathy’s experience and have been in touch to investigate this claim and shared details of the rigorous safety processes and checks we have in place to ensure every Pot Noodle is made to the highest standard, including passing our noodles and ingredients through a series of very small filters."